Puri Election Result LIVE: Sambit Patra would be hoping to make his debut in Lok Sabha by winning Puri Lok Sabha seat. Counting of votes to begin shortly.

Puri Lok Sabha election result: Much before the Lok Sabha election dates were announced, there were murmurs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi contesting from Odisha’s famous temple town of Puri apart from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party put all speculations to rest when it announced the name of Sambit Patra as its candidate for Puri Lok Sabha election.

Going by past elections, Puri, where the famous Jagannath temple is situated, has never been an easy playing field for the BJP. It is the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which has ruled the city historically. The party has won the seat in five consecutive Lok Sabha elections. The BJD has won Puri seat in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Despite the Modi wave sweeping the country in 2014, Puri voters preferred to stay with the BJD. Party’s candidate Pinaki Mishra got over five lakh votes defeating nearest rival Congress’ Sucharita Mohanty by more than three lakh votes. BJP’s Ashok Sahu was a distant third just over two lakh votes. The Congress has fielded Satya Prakash Nayak and the BSP has given ticket to Nrusingha Charas Das.

Sambit Patra, BJP national spokesperson, is facing a daunting task of defeating BJD heaviweight Pinaki Mishra. If Patra manages to stun Mishra, it would be for the first time that the BJP would win the seat.